Yes, your horse eating poop, a behavior known as coprophagia in horses, is a real issue many horse owners face. This behavior means the horse eats feces, either its own or that of another animal. While it can seem gross or worrying, it is often a sign of something manageable, though sometimes it needs a vet’s look.
What Is Coprophagia in Horses Exactly?
Coprophagia in horses is the act of eating manure or dung. It is not uncommon, especially in foals, but when an adult horse starts doing it, owners often seek answers. It involves eating feces, which can be from the horse itself (autocoprophagia) or from other animals like cows or even dogs. We need to figure out why do horses eat feces before we can fix the issue.
Deciphering the Causes of Horse Eating Manure
There are many reasons behind horse eating manure causes. These reasons fall into a few main groups: natural behaviors, diet issues, and medical problems. Finding the right cause is key to stopping this strange horse eating habit.
Natural Reasons and Foal Behavior
For young foals, eating manure is mostly normal. It helps them get the good bugs they need for digestion.
- Maternal Transfer: Foals often eat the manure of their mothers (dams). This helps seed their young digestive systems with the right bacteria. These bacteria are vital for breaking down tough grass later on.
- Learning Process: It is part of how a foal learns to eat solid food. They are mimicking their mother.
For adult horses, natural reasons are less common, but not impossible. Sometimes a horse might just be exploring its environment with its mouth.
Dietary Imbalances and Nutritional Needs
Often, the simplest answer is a problem with what the horse is eating. A nutritional deficiency horse poop eating is a common theory.
Lack of Necessary Nutrients
If a horse is missing key parts of its diet, it might turn to manure searching for them.
- Minerals and Salt: Horses need essential minerals. If their hay or feed lacks enough salt, calcium, or phosphorus, they might seek alternative, though incorrect, sources.
- B Vitamins: Vitamin B production happens in the hindgut. If gut health is poor, the horse might not absorb enough B vitamins. Some theories suggest eating manure helps replace these lost vitamins.
Insufficient Fiber Intake
Fiber is the backbone of a healthy horse diet. It keeps the hindgut working well.
- Poor Quality Forage: If the hay or pasture grass is low in quality, the horse might not get enough roughage.
- Forced Fasting: When a horse is kept off feed for too long between meals, it can become desperate for something to chew on.
Over-Concentrated Diets
Too many rich feeds can upset the gut balance. This upset can lead to a desire to eat manure to try and “reset” the system.
Medical and Health Issues
Sometimes, the behavior points to a health problem that needs professional attention.
- Parasite Load: A heavy worm burden can steal nutrients from the horse. This leaves the horse feeling starved for what it needs, leading to horse eating its own manure.
- Malabsorption Issues: If the horse cannot properly absorb nutrients from its feed, it will feel constantly hungry, fueling the coprophagia.
- Underlying Illness: Rarely, conditions like Exocrine Pancreatic Insufficiency (EPI) can cause severe malabsorption. This makes the horse eat anything, including feces, to try and get calories.
Behavioral and Environmental Factors
Not all causes are about food or health. Stress and boredom play big roles in many strange horse eating habits.
- Boredom and Confinement: Horses kept in small stalls with little to do often develop stereotypic behaviors. These include cribbing, weaving, and, yes, coprophagia. It’s a way to pass the time.
- Stress and Anxiety: Changes in routine, moving barns, or social isolation can cause stress. Eating manure can be a displacement behavior, similar to humans biting their nails.
- Improper Weaning: Foals weaned too early or too abruptly might revert to eating manure due to stress.
It is important to consult your veterinarian for a proper diagnosis. Vet advice horse coprophagia usually starts with a full physical exam and possibly blood work.
Safe Ways to Stop Horse Eating Poop
Once you have an idea of the cause, you can start managing horse poop eating. The approach must be safe and focused on solving the root problem, not just masking the behavior.
Dietary Adjustments: Fixing Nutritional Gaps
If diet is the issue, fixing the feed is the first step.
Assessing the Current Diet
You must know exactly what your horse eats every day.
- Forage Testing: Send samples of your hay to a lab. This tells you the true mineral and vitamin content.
- Feed Analysis: Review the commercial feeds to ensure they meet the horse’s needs for its workload and age.
Supplementation Strategy
Based on the test results, add what is missing.
- Balancer Pellets: Often, a low-sugar, high-nutrient balancer pellet is better than high-calorie grain mixes.
- Salt and Mineral Blocks: Ensure free-choice access to high-quality salt and mineral blocks specifically designed for horses. Avoid using mixes intended for cattle or sheep, as they can contain harmful levels of certain minerals for horses.
Increasing Meal Frequency
Keep the digestive system busy and prevent long periods of hunger.
- Slow Feeders: Use small-holed hay nets or slow feeders. This makes the horse work longer for its forage, mimicking natural grazing.
- Frequent Small Meals: If feeding grain or concentrates, split the total amount into three or four small meals per day instead of one or two large ones.
Environmental Enrichment and Stress Reduction
If the behavior is tied to boredom or stress, focus on making the horse happier in its environment.
Increasing Turnout Time
More time outside is almost always better for a horse’s mental health.
- Maximize Pasture Time: Allow as much time as possible in a safe, appropriate pasture setting.
- Herd Dynamics: Ensure the horse has positive social interaction with other horses. Isolation fuels many bad habits.
Providing Enrichment
Keep the horse’s brain busy, especially if stalled for long periods.
- Toys and Puzzles: Use treat balls or puzzle feeders to make them work for snacks.
- Varied Scenery: If possible, change the view or location of their stall periodically.
When addressing stress, owners often ask about other related habits. For instance, some wonder about the link between cribbing and coprophagia. While both are often linked to boredom or anxiety, one does not necessarily cause the other. Treating the underlying stress often helps reduce both habits.
Medical Intervention and Parasite Control
Never skip this step. If diet and environment changes do not work, a vet must step in.
- Deworming Protocols: Work with your vet to establish a modern, tailored deworming plan based on fecal egg counts. Reducing parasite load directly improves nutrient absorption.
- Gut Health Support: Your vet might suggest probiotics or prebiotics to restore a healthy balance of gut flora. A healthy gut absorbs nutrients better, reducing the perceived need to seek them elsewhere.
Practical Management Techniques
These are direct methods to block access to the offending material. They are short-term fixes while you address the root cause.
Cleaning Up Immediately
The simplest management tool is removing the temptation.
- Muck Out Often: Clean stalls multiple times a day. If the horse cannot find manure, it cannot eat it.
- Pasture Picking: If turnout is the issue, have someone pick the pasture frequently, especially right after the horse has defecated.
Using Taste Aversion (Use with Caution)
Some products are designed to make feces taste bad. These are generally considered a last resort or a temporary measure.
- Commercial Repellents: Products containing ingredients like cayenne pepper or sulfur compounds can be added to the feed. The goal is for these substances to pass through the digestive system and make the resulting manure unappetizing.
- Caution: Always ensure any product you use is safe for horses and approved for ingestion. Discuss this method with your veterinarian first.
It is crucial to remember that applying a bad taste only works if the horse is eating its own manure. If it is eating manure from another source (like a cow patty), taste aversion won’t help unless you can treat the source animal—which is often impractical.
Distinguishing Coprophagia Types
The strategy for stopping the behavior changes based on what the horse is eating.
Autocoprophagia (Eating Own Manure)
This is most common in sick or very old horses, or those with severe digestive upset.
| Possible Driver | Common Scenario | Focus of Solution |
|---|---|---|
| Nutritional Imbalance | Horse is fed too little hay or low-quality forage. | Increase forage amount and quality immediately. |
| Gut Dysbiosis | Recent antibiotic use or illness has killed good gut bacteria. | Probiotics, prebiotics, and slow introduction of new feed. |
| Old Age/Illness | Horse struggles to get up or bend down to defecate cleanly. | Assisted management, cleaner bedding, potential mobility help. |
Allomancrophagia (Eating Other Animals’ Manure)
This usually happens when other animals are housed nearby or on shared pasture space.
- Cow Manure: Cow patties are very appealing because they contain high levels of undigested fiber and sometimes different mineral profiles that smell attractive to horses.
- Dog/Cat Feces: Horses rarely seek this out unless highly confined or severely deficient, as the smell is often off-putting.
- Solution Focus: The primary focus here must be strict segregation or rigorous cleaning of shared areas. If your horse is on a mixed-species farm, fence off the cow pasture or ensure manure piles are inaccessible.
Long-Term Health Implications and When to Worry
While occasional manure eating might not be harmful, consistent horse eating manure causes ongoing risks.
Risk of Disease Transmission
Eating feces opens the door to parasites and pathogens.
- Internal Parasites: If the horse eats manure contaminated with parasite eggs (like roundworms or tapeworms), it re-infects itself. This makes deworming protocols ineffective.
- Botulism Risk: In rare cases, especially if eating decaying or strange manure, there is a small risk of contracting botulism spores.
Weight and Condition
If the horse is eating manure because it is not getting enough nutrition from its feed, its body condition will suffer. You might see weight loss despite seemingly adequate feeding amounts. This is a major warning sign that nutritional deficiency horse poop eating is the core issue.
When to Call the Vet Immediately
Seek immediate vet advice horse coprophagia if you notice any of these accompanying signs:
- Sudden, drastic weight loss.
- Colic signs (pawing, looking at flank, restlessness).
- Diarrhea or very soft manure alongside the eating behavior.
- Lethargy or depression.
These signs suggest a serious underlying medical issue, not just a simple behavioral quirk.
Comprehensive Action Plan: Safe Ways to Stop Horse Eating Poop
Here is a step-by-step plan summarizing safe ways to stop horse eating poop. Focus on the steps that match your horse’s likely cause.
| Step | Goal | Action Required | Timeline |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. Vet Check | Rule out medical causes and parasites. | Full physical exam, blood tests, fecal analysis. | Immediate |
| 2. Diet Audit | Ensure perfect nutrition delivery. | Test hay; balance minerals and vitamins using high-quality supplements. | Within 1 week |
| 3. Increase Forage | Keep the gut working constantly. | Use slow feeders; ensure 24/7 access to forage, even if it means more frequent haying. | Immediate |
| 4. Environment Fix | Reduce boredom and stress. | Maximize turnout; introduce safe toys or different herd members. | Ongoing |
| 5. Strict Hygiene | Eliminate temptation. | Muck stalls hourly if necessary; pick pastures daily. | Daily |
| 6. Reassess | Determine if behavior has changed. | If no change after 3-4 weeks of intervention, try taste aversion or consult a behavior specialist. | Monthly |
By addressing diet, environment, and health concurrently, you have the best chance of eliminating this strange horse eating habit. Success often relies on consistency and patience when managing horse poop eating.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) About Horse Coprophagia
Q: Is it dangerous if my horse is eating its own manure?
A: Occasionally, a little bit is not immediately dangerous, especially in foals. However, constant horse eating its own manure can lead to re-infection with parasites and may hide a serious underlying illness or nutrient deficiency. It should always be investigated if it becomes a persistent habit.
Q: Can I use medication to stop my horse from eating poop?
A: There is no specific “anti-poop-eating” drug. Medication is only used if the behavior is directly caused by a treatable condition, like severe anxiety (which might be managed with certain supplements or drugs prescribed by a vet) or if a diagnosed malabsorption syndrome needs specific treatment.
Q: Why is my horse obsessed with eating cow manure?
A: Cow manure is often softer and contains different nutrient profiles that smell appealing to horses, even if they don’t strictly need the nutrients. It is also typically higher in undigested fiber than horse manure. The main solution here is physical separation from the cow patties.
Q: What is the difference between coprophagia and pica?
A: Coprophagia is a specific form of pica. Pica is the general term for craving and eating non-food items (like wood, dirt, or hair). Coprophagia is specifically eating feces. Both can stem from similar underlying nutritional or behavioral drivers.
Q: If I supplement my horse heavily, will it stop eating poop?
A: Supplementation often helps if the root cause is a nutritional deficiency horse poop eating related. If the horse feels satisfied and balanced internally, the urge lessens. However, if the cause is purely behavioral (boredom), supplements alone will not solve the problem; environmental changes are also necessary.